NBA team owners buy into League of Legends eSports, form NRG

An investment group led by Sacramento Kings co-owners Andy Miller and Mark Mastrov has bought a spot in this year's League Championships Series (LCS).

The team to fill the spot, NRG eSports, is currently being filled with talent including former SKT World Champion Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong and Lee "GBM" Chang-seok.

The purchase of a spot in the LCS, bought from Team Coast for an undisclosed sum, is the third such sale so far this off season, as Team 8 sold their place to investors and Dignitas sold their team to FollowEsports for $1m.

This off season has been particularly volatile as team rosters are shuffled in time for the lock into next season of the LCS to begin.

The added attraction of investors to these spots this year, particularly from Miller and Mastrov – one a former Apple executive and the latter founder of the US 24-Hour Fitness gym chain – represents the beginning of things to come for controlled eSports ecosystems.

As traditional sports franchises also look to the industry as a way to diversify assets, it could be possible to see more than just familiar names in fantasy draft operators in eSports.